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German-American History
The
German-American history does not begin with the immigration of Germans
into the USA! There were Germans and thereby also German culture in America a
long time before. There also wasn’t only an immigration of further Germans
into the growing USA. Rather further territories came to the United States,
in which Germans had already lived before. The claim of later “Nativists“
that the Germans would have been foreign in an Anglo-Saxon America, was
therefore nonsense. We were there first. Later the USA was built
up -
a process, in which Germans were involved decisively from the
beginning - always with the will and the right to live in America in our
culture! - ... and that the Angles and Saxons were Germanic tribes, which
had once emigrated from Germany, one may well consider hereby as well...
In 1507 the German cartographer
Martin Waldseemüller named the new continent for Amerigo Vespucci “America“!!!
1607 Already
among the settlers, who founded Jamestown, Virginia (the first English
settlement in America) was a German: the Silesian Dr. Johannes Fleischer, a
medic from Breslau. In the next year (1608) eight further Germans followed.
In 1626 settlers from the Netherlands founded
the city of New Amsterdam (since 1664 New York). The flag of New York
City still shows the old Dutch colors today. The orange refers to the
German line of Nassau-Oranien. Until today the Dutch are singing in their
national anthem: “Wilhelm of Nassau I am, of German blood“. This
refers to a national hero, who led them against Spanish forces during a long
fight for independence., The Dutch and their Germanic language are of Frankish,
Friesian and Saxon descent (see our chapter “The Tribes“). In 1626
their homeland was officially still a part of the Reich. The English word
“Dutch“ is actually identical to the German word “deutsch“. The Germans were
also called “Dutch“ in America (for example:
Pennsylvania Dutch).
Since
1670 bigger numbers of German immigrants came to the
British colonies. They settled in the existing towns. The British Royal
Family was and is of German descent as well. The US-state of Georgia is named
for the German Georg II, King of Great Britain and Ireland, Electoral Prince
of Hanover (Lower Saxony).
The ”Concord“. It brought the later founders of the
first completely German settlement in America across the Atlantic in 1683.
In 1683 the
first completely German Settlement on the American continent was founded in Pennsylvania: Germantown. The first (amusingly) 13
families (like later the first thirteen states and thereby the stripes on the
American flag!) came from the area of Krefeld at the lower Rhine and thereby
from the centre of the old Franconia, out of which also the unification of
the German tribes in Central Europe had once begun! - The foundation
occurred on October 6th
- today October 6th is the yearly “German-American Day“ in the
USA.
In 1688 inhabitants
of Germantown organized the first petition in the British colonies to
abolish slavery. The birth-hour of the American antislavery movement! -
... and a very good example for the circumstance, that Germans
always immediately search themselves something to organize ...
Pennsylvania
anyhow developed into the centre of German culture in America soon. 1764 the
German Society of Pennsylvania was founded here. It still exists today!
The majority of
the now following settlers came from the Frankish culture area too, mostly
from the Palatinate.
1775 about one third of the citizens of Pennsylvania were
Germans! - And as everyone knows, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)
is nothing less, than the birthplace of the Union!
Pennsylvania
Dutch (Deutsch) developed into an own German dialect. Until today it’s
clearly related to the dialect from the Palatinate.
Further early
centres of German culture were New York and Virginia. In Europe
Bohemia was one of the biggest early emigration areas of Germans too.
In 1721 first
German settlers reached the French colony of Louisiana. They
came from the Swabian/ Alemannic culture area, from Alsace to the east of
Swabia. At first about 9.000 Germans were settled in Arkansas, which was a
part of the French ”Louisiana“ then. Many left Arkansas however and
demanded their return to Europe in New Orleans. Yet they received the fertile
land at the “German Coast“ east of the city instead. They named their
settlements Augsburg, Karlstein and Mariental. In 1803 the French colonial
prefect Pierre Clement Laussat described the German settlers as the most
industrious, most populous, most prosperous, most upright, most valuable
segment of the colony’s population. For a long time the goods of these
settlers secured the existence of New Orleans, which later became the second
most important harbor for the immigration of Germans to
North-America. Already the above mentioned Frenchman had recommended it’s
government to always continue inviting Germans to Louisiana.
In 1733 the
“New York Weekly Journal“ was founded by the German-American John Peter
Zenger, who was born in the Palatinate. On the order of the British
Governor Cosby, who had been criticised by Zenger’s Newspaper, he was
arrested an imprisoned. In the trial he was acquitted however. This was the first
victory in the history of American freedom of the press(!) and made
Zenger accordingly famous.
In 1776 the Declaration
of Independence was published in German first(!), by the newspaper “Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote“. This
happened on the 5th of July. In English one could not read it
before the 6th of July.
In 1777 the
Continental Army was close to being defeated, Philadelphia was occupied by
British troops. The Prussian General Baron von Steuben
was chosen, to reorganize the Continental Army. - ...organizing already again ... -
The Americans were happy to have won a General of the worldwide best
Army of that time for their cause. - That Steuben hadn’t been as important
before, as one assumed, was therefore irrelevant. - Steubens
contributions influenced the American armed-forces for a long time and helped
the Continental Army to it’s victory against the British. Additionally the
(also) Prussian Major Bartholomäus von Heer had taken over the Bodyguard
of George Washington in 1778.
- This evil, evil Prussian
military … - The Hessian Christoph Ludwig led the
supply of the troops.
From 1816
until 1819 there was a famine in south-western Germany, which led many
more Swabian/ Alemannic settlers to America.
At about 1820 the Thuringian
Karl Vollen reorganized the studying rules of the Harvard University (in
accordance to German models). - On the other hand: what else should he
have done there?! ...
Source: City of
Fredericksburg - www.fbgtx.org
1847 On the 9th of May Native-Americans
of the Comanche tribe and the Germans of Friedrichsburg/Fredericksburg,
Texas, concluded a peace-treaty. It is the only treaty between whites and
American-Indians that exists until today, without ever having been broken!
In 1848 the “Deutsche
Gesellschaft von Neu Orleans = German Society of New Orleans“ was
founded. It helped German immigrants, but also supported the suffering black
population of the city. Soon the big immigration of persecuted German
revolutionists followed, who did however not at all just flee. Many first
stayed in Europe for a longer time, hoping that they might continue the
revolution. Despite of all dangers for him, Friedrich Hecker even returned to
Europe all the way from America!
It was a very
slow, extremely bloody, martial(!) failure of the Revolution. For
the republican and democratic movement in Germany this meant the loss of it’s
most important and best heads. For America an enormous win. The destinations
were now most of all Texas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio and Iowa.
This immigration
of many German freedom-fighters coincided with the American conflict about
slavery. That the Germans refused slavery, employed free people (no matter of
which race!) and took care of the suffering black population, led to
anti-German tendencies in the states with legal slavery.
On August 6th
1855 22 Germans were killed in anti-German riots in Louisville,
Kentucky.
1861-1865 the
German-Americans almost exclusively fought on the side of the Union in the
American Civil War. Their goals under the leadership of the 48er
revolutionists were the Unity of the USA as well as the abolition of
slavery. Bigger economical freedom in a south without large-scale
land-holding was also supposed to contribute to a further immigration of
Germans and thereby a strengthening of the German culture in the USA. Many
cannons of the Union’s artillery came from the company of the Studebaker
brothers, who had immigrated from the German City of Solingen, which is
famous for it’s excellent blades until today. Apart from that the Studebakers
built transport wagons, which also made the conquest of the West possible.
About 25% of the Union’s troops were Germans(!), as well as Abraham
Lincoln’s personal secretary and his guard of German Turners, in which he
trusted especially much. 196.000 US-soldiers were born in Germany. The German
48er revolutionary hero Carl Schurz is made responsible for Spain not
intervening on the side of the south. Lincoln had send him to Spain as
ambassador. In 1862 he returned to the USA and served as Brigadier General.
Later he became Senator and Secretary of the Interior of the United States.
His wife Margarethe Schurz founded the first Kindergarten in America.
In 1866 the
German-American former governor of Louisiana and elected US-Senator Georg
Michael Hahn was shot and severely wounded by “Whites” in the racist
"New Orleans Riot“. Hahn had been a good friend of Abraham Lincoln
(murdered 1865) and had strived for a public educational-system for “Blacks”
as well as their suffrage.
In the following
years the attitude towards German-Americans was very positive in the USA.
Their contributions were obvious everywhere and the German culture throve.
Compared with immigrants from other nations, Germans were preferred.
In the late 19th century the number of German-Americans doubled.
People from German states, in which minorities like Polish or Czechs existed,
had to prove correct German language skills, to separate the wanted Germans
from the not wanted Slavonic citizens of German states.
Accusations
against the German culture only targeted it’s casualness at this time. Most
of all celebrating, playing or drinking on Sundays bothered the puritan
“English“.
In
1902 the immigration wave of German “Teddy bears” began.
They (like all other soft toys of their kind) had their origin in the company
of the Swabian Margarethe Steiff. Her bear received the name “Teddy“ in
America, because these bears “conquered“ the country a short time after
President Theodor “Teddy“ Roosevelt had rejected to shoot a little bear
during a hunt. - Probably the imported animals of Steiff
make the Swabians the biggest group of German immigrants to America until
today ... - And they are soo welcome!!!
On the
15th of June 1904 the excursion steamboat “General Slocum“
caught fire in New York City. This catastrophe killed more than a
thousand people, mostly German-American women and children from East-Village,
“Little Germany”. They had been on a common journey financed by their church
community. In the aftermath the horrific human losses also
destroyed the German character of this part of New York. People moved
away, not able to bear the sight of empty streets anymore, in which their
children had always played.
Rabble-rousing Propaganda against
the German culture (1) and the sinking Lusitania (2).
In 1914 World
War I broke out in Europe. Against international law the allied western
powers also attacked the German colonies. The propaganda-lie, that the
British Empire, with it’s most powerful navy of the world, would have felt
threatened by the much smaller, young German “Kaiserliche Marine“ was reduced
to absurdum, as the British managed it soon to cut off the Germans from the
Atlantic with a sea blockade in the German Sea/ North Sea. -
Another step that violated international law. The German Reich reacted
with U-boat attacks on British trading ships, to weaken the British supply
too.
In 1915 this
led to the sinking of the passenger ship Lusitania, with many
Americans on board. The reason was German intelligence about the British
abusing the passengers as living shields to transport ammunition. After a Warning
of the German embassy in American newspapers (before the Lusitania cast off),
it was sunk by a German U-boat. One German soldier refused the order to fire
the torpedo for conscientious reasons! After only one hit, the ship
sank rapidly. In the following time the German people was denied being
civilized. In America hatred spread
- also against the own Germans!
In 1917 the USA
formally became a war-party. Several US-States forbid every
expression of German culture, even the language. The base of German-American
culture in the school-systems was exterminated. Later the Supreme Court of
the United States declared these laws to have been unconstitutional, but the
harm and the fear were already there for a too long time. -
Perfidious irony: After World
War I a New Yorker court also judged about the sinking of the Lusitania: The attack had been absolutely legal(!),
the Lusitania had been abused for the transport of ammunition!
After World War
II British destroyers illegally dropped depth charges on the old wrack (a sea
grave!). The (in the last years examined) remains of the wrack and thereby
all evidence on the bottom of the sea got completely destroyed. Until today
the British files are kept under lock and key! Personally responsible, like
for many more war crimes in the Boer War, World War I and II: Winston
Churchill.
1918-1933 the
fear of the awful “German monsters“ or “Huns“ remarkably quickly vanished
among the powerful in America. Germans were immediately preferred again
in comparison to almost all other nations! …
The USA gave big
credits to the (republican) German Reich, which severely suffered under
territorial losses an unbearable reparations.
In 1933 an
Austrian, who had been a leading politician in the Reich a long time before
he had been it’s citizen(!), was announced Reichs-chancellor: Adolf Hitler. A
democratic majority had never elected him, but the Germans (not only in
Europe) longed for a recovery of national dignity. The dignity of the German
Jews fell a victim to nazism and the much too big lack of
resistance. Also in America Hitler found many supporters -
also (but not at all exclusively) among German-Americans (only 25.000
were members of the nazistic “Amerikadeutscher Bund“). The most well-known
Nazi-supporters were Fritz Kuhn, the leader of this organisation, the pilot
Charles Lindbergh and the industrialist Henry Ford.
In 1938 a
group of German (military) officers around General Ludwig Beck intended to
arrest Hitler during the “Sudeten crisis“. The plan failed in the very last
moment, as the western powers gave way to Hitler’s aggressive politics and he
suddenly appeared as a political hero in public, which one could not
topple and bring to justice anymore …
- The following victories
1939-41, with unique military performances of the German soldiers, increased
this problem only the more!
On December 7th
1941 the United States was attacked in Pearl Harbor by the Japanese.
Four days later the German Reich and Italy declared war on the USA, as allies
of Japan. The leadership of the Reich hoped that this would cause a Japanese
contribution to the war against the Soviet Union, but Japan still did
nothing, while more German soldiers froze to death at the Russian front than
died in action. Apart from that, the German “Kriegsmarine = War Navy“ finally
wanted to be able to fight the US-Navy, which had (illegally) attacked German
U-boats before, whereas any attack on
the Americans had been prohibited to the “Kriegsmarine”. The American losses
in the Atlantic and in the Gulf of Mexico were horrific at first. The U-boats
even mined the Mississippi-Delta, and the Germans smelled the close forests
of Louisiana out on the sea. - But not only on the sea! -
Don’t forget: the entire country was full of Germans! ...
In 1941 the
German-American Admiral Chester Nimitz from Friedrichsburg/
Fredericksburg, Texas, became commander-in-chief U.S. Pacific Fleet and
Pacific Ocean Areas (more about Chester Nimitz at the link “Armed Forces“
down on the left). Later he (a German!) signed the Japanese capitulation
for the USA!
In 1942 the
German descending US-General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Eisenhauer) from
Texas became commander-in-chief of the allied troops in Africa. In 1943 he
became highest commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe. -
He later called the war a ”crusade“.
- No comment ...
In 1942/43 Carl
Spaatz (of Pennsylvania-German descent) became commander of the US-Air
Force in Africa. Since January 1944 he was the commander-in-chief of the
strategic US-Air Force in Europe and since July 1945 against Japan. After the
war he became Chief of Staff of the US-Air Force.
In 1945 the German-American
contributions to the victories in Europe and in the Pacific area
submerged. Hardly anyone spoke about the courage and bravery or the
sacrifices of German-American soldiers and their families. Once more
German-Americans hid their national identity. They didn’t want to suffer
under disadvantages for the disgusting crimes of the Nazis. How real this
fear was, is shown by the famines in Germany, during which the USA (in
contrast to the United Kingdom, where the population suffered itself) did not
fulfil it’s obligations to supply the population. It took civilian dismay in
America about photos of starving German children to end this attitude. It was
a time of hatred among nations, not of a victory against the hatred
among nations. - Unfortunately! - The predatory
deportations, decided at the Potsdam Conference, and the mass-murders in the
deportation-areas prove this finally.
1947 The
U.S. Air force pilot Charles “Chuck“ Yeager (actually Jäger) becomes the
first men to break the sound barrier.
Soon there was a “new”
enemy: Communism.
A few years after
World War II the western powers therefore already pressed for a
reconstruction of German armed forces.
- The idea wasn’t completely
new: US-officials had already negotiated with Waffen-SS-leaders (not
Wehrmacht-officers!) in Italy about an alliance against the Soviets ...
- … and that’s really true!
Nevertheless:
In
1955 German soldiers from Europe and German soldiers
from America were finally allies, in the NATO alliance.
1969 On
the 20th of July the German-American US-Astronaut Neil Armstrong
landed on the moon. Neil came from Ohio and was the son of Stephen Koenig
Armstrong and Louise Viola Engel.
- Accordingly one could say:
if your Mama is born as an “Engel = Angel“, you’re naturally somehow destined
to fly ... - but this would be religious ... -
In every case Neil (on the 21st of July) was the first human, who
made a step onto extraterrestrial ground! - Yey!!!
The flight
director on Earth was Gene Kranz. The rocket-technology and the
space suite were based (to a huuuge extend) on the work of German/
German-American engineers and designers! The most important one was Wernher
von Braun, who had already led the rocket-program of the German Reich in
World War II. In spite of all pride one therefore also has to remember the victims
of this rocket-development. Many forced workers had died under horrific
circumstances then!
1970 On
the 4th of May four students, who had demonstrated against the widening of
the Vietnam War, were groundlessly shot in Ohio by the National Guard,
like the FBI later ascertained. The victims were Allison Krause, Sandy
Scheuer, Bill Schroeder, Jeff Miller. The circumstances of their death were
hushed up. “Free Media“ lied to the American people about these events. At
the end this awful violence strengthened the peace-movement.
That also members
of this peace-movement caused big emotional harm to US-soldiers and their
families, is a different sad topic of this time filled by a
get-up-and-go-attitude and fantastic music
- just like the many innocent victims in Vietnam! -
Learning from history is soo important!!!
Since the 70s the
anti-German resentments got weaker in America. The
“Frrranconian” Heinz (alias Henry) Kissinger was US-Secretary
of State and received the Nobel peace prize. Typical subliminal
propaganda-images (like for example, that the bad guys in movies almost
always drove German cars ... or that Germans in movies were almost always
stiff, grimy idiots) lasted far into the 90s however - partly even until today ... -
No wonder, that the decline of the German culture continued too under
these impressions (also in Europe!!!)
- who’d want to belong to
“unlikable idiots”?! ...
... only those,
who are smarter than the real idiots!!! ...
In 1983
US-President Ronald Reagan, who was treated with a remarkable hostility in
the so called “Federal Republic of Germany”*, declared the 6th of October
the yearly “German-American Day“ and appealed people to celebrate this
day with German traditions! It was the 300th anniversary of the foundation of
Germantown, Pennsylvania.
* The German name is different to the
English expression “Federal Republic of Germany“. “Bundesrepublik
Deutschland“ means “Federal Republic Germany”. However the state is not
Deutschland/ Germany. The word “Deutschland” arose in the 15th
century from “das deutsche Land = the German country”. So Deutschland/
Germany is the land, marked by the German culture - a culturally defined area
- not a state! No other state has ever officially called itself Germany(!),
but several included much more of this territory and the German people! Just
using this name would be incorrect, manipulating and morally wrong.
In 1990 the
German descending US-General H. Norman Schwarzkopf led the allied troops in
the Gulf War. In the media he received the nickname ”Stormin’ Norman“. His
father had also already served as a US-General. This service had led Norman
to Germany as a boy as well.
In 1996 the
Comanches and the Germans in Fredericksburg, Texas, began the tradition, to
celebrate the treaty of 1847 with a yearly powwow.
In 2003 the
Austrian Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected Governor of California. His
Training in the Austrian “Bundesheer = Federal Army” had enabled him to play
the role of a fighting-machine named “Terminator“ before. This movie proved
finally, that not even Bajuvarians always wear Lederhosen! At least not “such“
Lederhosen ... - Blow! So he did were “Lederhosen =
leather pants“ indeed! ... -
Accordingly we simply recommend our chapter “The tribes” here again
...
In 2014 the
New Yorker entrepreneur and former “Grandmarshall“ of the New York
Stubenparade Donald Trump publicly declared his pride on the German
descent of his family. Once he had kept up the “covering lie“ of his
father that the family would have come from Sweden. On the 9th of November 2016
Donald Trump won the elections for the 45th President of the
United States and was inaugurated in the beginning of 2017. November 9th
is a very remarkable day at many points of German history! To the good, just
like to the bad. Everyone who reads it, can learn much about how
important it can be, to keep serenity, but also attention, to
hold together and really listen to political opponents(!), as how
often have there already been issues, in which both sides were somehow
right! - And how often have journalists already spread things, which
were not true.
In 2017 the
Germerika Project arose out of the will to remember 1917, honor the
German heroes in American history and help the numerous active
German-Americans in preserving heritage and creating new glory.
And now take part, “make history“! -
Thanks in advance!
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